Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong: Do not let people suffer injustice or disadvantages

5 reasons why complaints and petitions are slow to be resolved

At the meeting between the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and leaders at the department level and equivalent in provincial agencies, regarding difficulties, obstacles, and issues that need to be resolved in the fields of political security, social order and safety; coordination of sectors in the Internal Affairs Bloc, there were 3 opinions from department heads and deputy heads.

Among them, there are opinions raising questions that currently, in the province, there are still some complicated cases that have been delayed in being resolved; some cases lack consensus between levels and sectors on handling authority, so citizens still have to travel to many places and submit petitions many times; some local authorities have not had timely dialogue with direct complainants and people with related interests.

Overview of the conference. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Thereby, we would like to request the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee to inform us of its viewpoints and solutions for the coming time to effectively implement the above issues?

Discussing the issues that delegates were concerned about regarding the work of science and technology, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong frankly acknowledged that there were cases that had been slow to be resolved for many years in the province.

However, it must be affirmed that the work of resolving complaints and denunciations has made great progress in Nghe An, especially in this term. The rate of resolving complaints and denunciations has always exceeded 96%, even the complaints under the authority of provincial agencies and departments annually reach 100%, and at district level it is about 97-98% annually.

"That is an encouraging result from the efforts of competent agencies and individuals, under the resolute and close leadership of the provincial Party Committee, especially the Standing Committee and the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee in this field," said the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee.

Reviewing some cases where complaints and petitions were resolved over a long period of time, comrade Nguyen Van Thong pointed out 5 reasons why complaints and petitions were delayed in being resolved.

Accordingly, there are cases that are too complicated, happened a long time ago, the State's policy mechanism, the State's legal regulations have changed a lot, especially in the land sector; there are weaknesses in the State administrative management at all levels left over from the past that have lasted until now.

Records, documents and evidence are not established, kept completely, or are established but established arbitrarily, contradictory, making it difficult to argue correctly with the events that happened in practice decades ago. This situation, through research on cases and incidents, has causes from two sides: the complainant and also from the responsible and competent State agencies and organizations.

Comrade Tran Xuan Truong - Head of the Department of Investigation and Trial of Economic and Positional Cases, Provincial People's Procuracy, delivered a speech at the Conference. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Another reason is that some people's understanding of the law and the State's mechanisms and policies is not really complete and thorough, including understanding the rights and obligations in the KNTC, as well as how to protect their own interests and rights. Not many, but there are a few people who have requests and demands that are too much compared to the State's regulations and policies, even showing signs of being a bit extreme in thinking, in demanding requirements and rights.

Mechanisms, policies and legal regulations have changed a lot; implementation instructions are not timely, even inconsistent and not really close to reality, especially in the land sector.

In particular, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong noted a very important reason: the responsibility of some sectors and localities is not high; the quality of handling complaints, petitions and feedback from the people is not really good. This happens in the field of State administrative management, as well as in the judicial field; the application of the law to resolve or not resolve the rights requested by the parties is not really accurate. In implementing the procedural process, the process of receiving, accepting, considering, resolving and responding to citizens is also not really standard.

Will criticize and review evasion, superficiality, and shirking of responsibility.

Faced with such a situation, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong affirmed that the provincial leaders and the advisory agencies are very concerned about how to thoroughly overcome it. “The demands of the people are generally very legitimate and must be resolved promptly. “Yes or no?” must be clear. That is our responsibility and ours first and foremost.”

“We and all of us, those who serve the people, must uphold the motto of not letting the people be wronged. Wrong in State legal regulations, wrong in policy mechanisms. That is the first thing to think about and the last thing to achieve throughout the process of contacting, listening, resolving, and responding to the people,” the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee pointed out the directions for overcoming the problem.

Comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, along with departments and branches, listened to and answered people's opinions at the citizen reception session in June 2019. Photo: Dang Nguyen

From there, for the group of common solutions to overcome the problem, he pointed out: Continue to improve the quality of propaganda, dissemination and legal education among the people so that people understand and agree with the policies and guidelines of the Party and State, agree with the policies and plans of the locality; through many forms of propaganda and information so that people fully understand the provisions of the law on KNTC and properly exercise their rights and obligations in this field.

Strengthening the work of inspection, supervision, urging, and reminding all levels and sectors about the work of handling complaints, recommendations, and reflections from the people; implementing well the procedures for receiving citizens by Party secretaries, heads of administrative agencies, and heads of agencies and units. "Focus on resolving cases right at the grassroots level, and ending them right at the first time of handling people's complaints," the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee pointed out the motto.

Improve the quality of consulting and complaint handling work at all levels, sectors and units; resolutely prevent the occurrence of missing or incorrect procedures or incorrect or inaccurate application of the law in the process of handling complaints from the people in the fields of State administrative management as well as the field of judicial proceedings, including in the implementation of the charters of political institutions.

Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong responded to comments at the Conference. Photo: Thanh Cuong

“We will be very serious, and if necessary, criticize and review the evasion, superficiality, and delay in passing responsibilities leading to petitions going beyond the level of local authorities and units if this situation occurs. I hope and believe that this will not be the case in the future.”

Deputy Secretary of Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong

Continue to review, revise and supplement the procedures on responsibility for handling complaints and denunciations in evaluating the performance of tasks at all levels, sectors and units, especially the heads of Party committees, authorities, and heads of agencies and units.

Promote the advisory role of sectors, especially the agencies of the Internal Affairs sector, closely coordinate with the Party Inspection Committee, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and organizations at all levels in listening to, handling and resolving complaints, petitions and feedback from the people.

Strengthen and attach importance to the work of mobilization and reconciliation among the people. “We and we will pay close attention to exploiting traditional cultural factors, village and neighborhood sentiment, forgiving is better than forgiving, and forgiving is better than forgiving to resolve and reduce conflicts among the people.”

At the conference, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong also pointed out specific tasks to be done for complicated cases remaining in the province.